Sex in the Soviet Union: Myths and mores

The writer Denis Dragunsky reminisces about how Soviet citizens kept their bodies free in a totalitarian state, talks about who had access to pornography, and reveals why people rarely visited prostitutes.

There was always an aura of taboo around sex in the Soviet
Union. At the same time, there was, of course, sex. And a lot of it—no less
than there is now. It's just that talking about it was considered embarrassing
and indecent.

It is commonly thought that during the Leningrad–Boston
perestroika teleconference, one woman said, "We have no sex in the
USSR." This is not true. What she actually said was that there was no sex
on television.

Even earlier, back in 1977, Georgi Vasilchenko's book, “Common Sexual Pathologies,”was
published, in which he summarized his experiences and described couples he saw
in his practice. From his experience, it was clear that many sexual disorders
occurred because people did not know how to talk about it.

Words for sex and
sexual organs were either obscene or medical terms—neither of which encourage
frank discussions.

There was another scandal in 1978, with the release of the
film “Strannaya Zhenshchina” (“The Strange Woman”) about a young man
and mature women who fall in love. A review on this film was published in Komsomolskaya Pravda that said, in
part: "What's so strange here, if one in three marriages in the Soviet
Union end in divorce?"

I was working then at the Diplomatic Academy and learned
the news the next morning in a Greek newspaper. It had been picked up by
newspapers around the world. Even compared to the West, this was a huge number
of divorces.

How sexual freedoms gave way to a lack of freedom

In the 1920s, the Soviet authorities released the reins on
sexual mores. Sexual freedom and emancipation of women were seen as part of the
struggle against religion, grammar schools, the teaching of Greek and Latin,
work uniforms, and the czarist-era Table of Ranks.

It was at this time that
homosexuality was also de-criminalized. Divorces could be obtained without any
problem: It was possible to get a divorce without even informing your spouse.

Later, under Stalin, a more imperial policy was introduced:
Abortions were banned, homosexuality was prohibited, and divorces became much
more complicated. Even in the 1960s, people seeking a divorce had to put an ad
in the Vechernei Moskve
newspaper. Only very powerful people could afford to divorce quietly.

After the war, there was an acute lack of men, so alimony
payments were done away with. The issue of recognizing paternity was not even
raised. An unmarried woman just left that line blank in the child's birth
certificate.

Then, in the beginning of the 1950s, the situation began to level
off and there was once again a movement to strengthen the family. Alimony
dodgers appeared who persistently refused to pay alimony. Hunting down alimony
dodgers was replaced in the 1960s by another popular pastime—hunting down
enemies of the people.

The police took alimony dodgers to court and sent court
orders to them at work. For one child, they had to pay 25 percent of their
salary; for two children it was 33 percent and for three or more it was 50
percent.

So men deliberately found low-paying jobs, paid alimony out of that
salary, and earned money for themselves on the side. Every alimony dodger was
positive that his money was going to feed a slacker—the new husband of his former
wife.

Porn on the black market

Pornographic pictures were very popular. They were sold in
trains by people who were, for some reason, called "Belarusians."
Actually, they really did look something like Belarusians—blond, with high
cheekbones and deep-set, bright blue eyes. They pretended to be deaf, but in
reality were not. A dealer would come up to you, nudge your elbow, and take out
pornographic pictures.

The pictures could be divided into two unequal groups: The
smaller group included reprints of foreign photos, and the larger were
charming, homemade photos. They all seemed to feature iron beds with
nickel-plated knobs, lace pillows, and paintings of bears by Shishkin on the
walls.

Related:

Each picture showed an individual scene, and a set of pictures cost 3
rubles. By comparison, a pack of Capital cigarettes cost 40 cents, a bottle of
vodka was 3 rubles, and a theatre ticket was 1.50 rubles.

Sometimes the photos were sold as a pack of cards; on the
other side of each picture was, for example, the queen of clubs. In addition,
there were handmade, locally-produced, pornographic stories with traditional
Russian themes.

Later, translations from English appeared, like the famous “Holidays in California”book.
A self-published Kama Sutra
that had been typed out on a typewriter also made the rounds.

Still, only respectable books like Kafka, Pasternak and
Tsvetayeva were sold on the black market in the Soviet Union. There were black
markets that sold science fiction and markets where religious literature was sold—but
there was no pornographic literature.

In the early 1970s, there was another breakthrough: Little
albums with a series of pornographic scenes, like pornographic comics, began to
appear in the Soviet Union. They were copied at night. Films also appeared in
the amateur 8mm format.

The movies were foreign and professionally produced,
judging by the quality. These films were imported mainly from Germany. The movies
were like silent movies: One didn't need sound to understand the plot. But
there definitely was a plot. All of the movies from the 1960s, 1970s and even
1980s had a witty or funny story line, which made them interesting to
watch.

Soviet contraceptives

Condoms were commonly available in pharmacies. Yet
discussing condoms and lubricants aloud was not socially acceptable. Most men
came into a pharmacy and whispered faintly, or said, "A bag,
please!" or even "Aspirin!" with a wink.

At the time, it was
impossible to imagine that a huge glass cabinet with condoms could ever stand
in the middle of a pharmacy, or that customers would consult with pharmacists
about the quality, taste, color and smell of a condom.

"Aspirin" cost two cents and came in three sizes.
Condoms came sprinkled with talcum powder, so they had to be lubricated either
with petroleum jelly or saliva—whatever people preferred. Imported condoms
appeared on the market in about the mid-1970s. At first, only Indian ones were
offered, and then others appeared on the market from different countries.

There were other forms of contraception, like today, only
they were much less safe. Sexually experienced women would teach friends exactly
where to insert a lemon slice. They inserted the lemon right along with the
peel.

It worked for the most part. Lemon is, after all, an acid. Women also
douched with potassium permanganate. They would jump out of bed and run to the
bathroom where they had left a little cup of pink water.

Modern sexual totalitarianism

Sex was one of the ways to resist totalitarianism. No
wonder Orwell wrote that the goal of a totalitarian state is to subject the
body and squash all sexual pleasure. Now there are new sexual dictates—body
waxing, chemical peeling and physical fitness.

In the past, women were all so
different: There were chubby ones, skinny ones, or even bow-legged ones. No one
obsessed about it. There was no cult of the body, because everyone knew
perfectly well that this was for athletes and professionals.

In modern Russia, we now have the cult of the plastic,
Photoshopped body. It's just another kind of totalitarianism—the
totalitarianism of advertising and fashion. In the Soviet Union it was
different, probably because everyone was poor and had sex without giving it a
second thought.

This is why there was less prostitution. It was an era when everything
was free, which could not help but spill over into sex. Why pay a prostitute
when you could just go out and dance?

Prostitutes and intellectuals

Prostitutes waited on the platforms of large suburban train
stations. They sat with their legs stretched out and their prices written on
the soles of their shoes, so that any passerby could check it out. There were
two price levels for prostitutes in Moscow: either three or five rubles.

The girls usually could be found near the Prospect Mira
subway station. They wore rings made of three-ruble or five-ruble bills. One was
green, the other was blue, and it was easy to tell the price the girls were
asking. But few people went to prostitutes.

Using the services of a prostitute
was like paying for drinking water when it was available for free at any water
fountain. There were plenty of girls who were willing to indulge in the joys of
sex for free.

There was, of course, the risk of STDs. People were afraid
of gonorrhea and syphilis, which were very common. There were even street
legends associated with them. For example, people knew that the nose could fall
off from syphilis, but few people knew that this only happened after about 10
years, if the disease is left untreated. Thus, the morning after a wild night,
some guys would, in all seriousness, check their noses.

Problems also arose because the general level of personal
hygiene was poor. People bathed rarely and not very carefully. It was said that
sexually active girls bathed more often, but proper girls only changed their
underwear when they bathed, which was once every four days.

Even in the 1970s,
neighbors thought that a female student who rented a room in a communal
apartment and took a shower every day must be a prostitute. Back then, it was
believed that only a prostitute would bathe every day.